5 people from around the world share what it's like to get free 'basic income'

Essentially a salary paid to people just for being alive, the idea has taken hold as a straightforward, non-partisan means to reduce wealth inequality, lift people from poverty, and increase life satisfaction.

Basic income experiments are underway in a number of countries, including Finland, the US, and Kenya. Many more experiments are expected to begin in 2017.

Here's what recipients have said about getting free cash.

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Scott Santens, New Orleans-based writer

Scott Santens

Santens is perhaps the foremost advocate for basic income today. He's also a recipient. Since 2015, he has been receiving $1,000 a month in donations via the crowdfunding site Patreon.

In the two years since receiving his first basic income, Santens has said the biggest benefits are newfound freedom to pursue work he enjoys and the security knowing he can cover emergency costs. He also says basic income can fix an imbalance of public trust based on money.

"UBI looks at this system of trust maldistribution and says everyone should be given a minimum amount of trust, because the way we currently use pieces of paper to measure and distribute trust is fatally flawed without it," he told Business Insider.

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Philip, Kenyan day laborer

GiveDirectly

As its name implies, the charity GiveDirectly has been transferring cash to people in East Africa for the past several years. Last fall, GiveDirectly launched a trial version of a larger experiment that will pay out basic income to 6,000 people over 12 years. It's set to take place later this year.

Many of the recipients have little education and work in manual-labor jobs. Philip, 32, first received $99 and then $491 a few months later. It's more than most people make in a year and a half in Kenya, and it let him build his own house.

"I had lost the hope of living a good life and again I will never stay in a rented house again," he said.

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Frans Kerver, Dutch copywriter

Facebook

For 12 months between July 2015 and July 2016, Kerver received $1,100 a month — no strings attached. It was given to him by a local basic income advocacy group called MIES (translation: Society for Innovations in Economics and Community).

Kerver was working 12-hour days as a freelance copywriter before his basic income showed up. His family barely saw him. Once the extra cash started coming in, Kerver could afford to take fewer project and spend more time with his wife and kids.

"It's better when you work a little less and have some leisure time with family and friends," he told Business Insider last March. "I think it keeps you fresh."

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Juha Jarvinen, Finnish entrepreneur

Juha Jarvinen/Facebook

On New Year's Day, Finland began its experiment of giving $600 per month to 2,000 jobless Finns until 2019. Jarvinen was one of the lucky 2,000.

"I was dreaming to get into the test and now I'm here," the 37-year-old entrepreneur and father of six wrote on his Facebook profile. "I can't even believe."

Jarvinen wrote that he had been unemployed for the last five years when he got wind he'd been selected as one of the beneficiaries.

He says he'll start a new business as soon as possible — a freedom granted by basic income, as unemployment benefits aren't available to business owners whose companies go under.

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Regina, Kenyan farmer

GiveDirectly

Regina, 60, first described her living situation to GiveDirectly staff as "squeezed." She says she had never imagined herself in a big house before the cash payments arrived.

Her two lump sums mirrored Philip's: $99 and $491, issued several months apart. The first sum went toward her children's schools fees and school uniforms. The next went toward upgrading her living arrangements.